Today on FESTIVAL, we meet two advocates who are in it for the long haul.
First, we launch a new recurring segment: The Roots of My Theory of Everything, in which we bring on thinkers and advocates to walk through the origins of how they see the world. The series kicks off with Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who has spent three decades championing local community economies and challenging the domination of Walmart and Amazon. Tune in to learn about the forgotten history of local businesses and the New Deal, the abandoned power of the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, and effective methods of changing public narratives around your cause.
Later in the show, we kick off the series After-Action Report, in which advocates recount recent battles, sharing what went well, what didn’t, and most importantly, what we can learn for future action. Joining us to walk through his past fifteen years of fighting Congressional corruption is cyberlaw folk hero turned campaign finance reform crusader Lawrence Lessig. Tune in to learn about his push for a new constitutional convention, lessons from his 2016 presidential campaign, and new hope in a Maine court case that could defang Super PACs once and for all.
Timecodes:
00:01:06 Introducing The Roots of My Theory of Everything and Stacy Mitchell’s work with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
00:02:53 Interview with Stacy Mitchell
00:50:38 Introducing After-Action Report and Lawrence Lessig’s campaign finance reform crusade
00:53:20 Interview with Lawrence Lessig
Further reading:
Stacy Mitchell’s book Big Box Swindle
Stacy Mitchell’s report Amazon’s Stranglehold
ILSR on the Robinson-Patman Act
Lawrence Lessig’s book Republic, Lost
Tom Latkowski’s book on Democracy Vouchers
More info on the Maine case to defang Super PACs: Dinner Table Action v. Schneider
Roberto Mangabeira Unger’s Letter to Young People
Wendell Berry’s poem “February 2, 1968” is in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
Subscribe to FESTIVAL on:
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If you haven’t seen FESTIVAL’s first episode with the Two Loops Model’s Deborah Frieze and Randonautica’s Joshua Lengfelder, you can find it here.
And below you can check out FESTIVAL’s trailer, which includes our wonderful theme song—“Last Dance at the Grove” by the great Boston band Noble Dust:
